33 year old, Hamid Taha can finally breathe through his nose! For the past 2 years, he could not speak or eat properly, or even, breathe through his nose due to cancer in the wind pipe. He was suffering from a rare type of cancer called Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of Trachea. His trips to two other leading hospitals led to a palliative Tracheostomy and an option of palliative stents,which could do nothing for tumor because of the large diseased area.

An exceptional
and 'one of its kind' surgery was successfully performed at Artemis
Hospital, Gurgaon by a team of doctors which comprised of Surgical
Oncologists, Otolaryngologist and Anesthesiologists. Hamid is now
healthy; the Tracheostomy tube has been removed and he can speak &
eat normally.

To eliminate
the tumor, 7.8 cm of the wind pipe was removed and later on,
reconstructed naturally, with the help of muscle flaps and
pericardium. ''It was a difficult surgery because of the long length
of the wind pipe engulfed by cancer and the pre-existing
Tracheostomy. Wind pipe surgeries are extremely challenging due to
the close proximity to vital organs like heart and major blood
vessels; moreover, giving anesthesia to the patient is very tough.
Radiotherapy And Chemotherapy are of no use in such cases and
mortality rate is 10percent”, said Dr. Parveen Yadav, operating
surgeon & Consultant - Surgical Oncology and at Artemis Hospital,
Gurgaon.

In
Focus

Discussing the
procedures involved, Dr. Mandeep Singh, Head - Surgical Oncology,
said, ''This is a first time incident in India, wherein, such a large
length of the cancerous wind pipe was cut off. Reconstruction was
intricate because the usual method of joining the two parts of wind
pipe was not an option. We had to reconstruct the detached part of
the wind pipe. This kind of surgery is available in very few
hospitals in the world. At Artemis, we have a specialized, multi-
disciplinary, organ based cancer experts who are capable of complex
airway surgical procedures and other advanced cancer surgeries.''